PRESS RELEASE

May 24, 2012

Contact: Jason Edelstein
NGO Monitor
+972-52-861-2129
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Half the Story: Analysis of Amnesty's 2012 World Report
http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=rfhybieab&v=001Sr5a1LSTp6M4UHs0zyG7ndSu3tSpWoqMZQT-Uj_g4ikHXAGebXNT2XW9_AQqXI4Eu6XKHRNAfEY5YduxXoTGDm-XMuB5XRZv_UjvNc0BpPDFkhUO8LP1wA%3D%3D

JERUSALEM - In response to Amnesty International's 2012 World Report, NGO
Monitor today released the following statement:

· As in many previous reports, Amnesty continues to level
unsupported allegations of violations of international law against Israel,
including "collective punishment." In contrast, the organization expressed
uncertainty regarding the legal significance of the murder of more than
8,000 Syrians by Bashar al-Assad, claiming that these deaths "may have
constituted crimes against humanity". Israel is mentioned 137 times in the
report as opposed to 74 mentions for the Syrian regime.

· In the 2012 report, Amnesty accuses Israel of "collective
punishment" (pg 48) of the Palestinian population, in the form of a blockade
against Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas. In making this false claim, the
authors of Amnesty's report have stripped away the context. For instance,
the organization ignores that Israel's blockade was implemented to stop the
smuggling of weapons and rockets used to target Israeli citizens. In
September 2011, the UN Secretary General's Palmer Committee found that the
naval blockade of Gaza is legal under international law, explicitly
rejecting Amnesty's claims. In addition, Amnesty fails to report on the
thousands of tons of goods provided by Israel to Gaza every week.

· Amnesty also minimizes the ongoing rocket attacks targeting
Israeli civilians ranging from Ashkelon and beyond, and terrorizing over one
million Israelis, who flee to bomb shelters and suffer severe psychological
trauma with every attack. While Amnesty label's Israel's actions as "crimes"
under international law, it fails to use this designation for the thousands
of indiscriminate Palestinian rocket attacks - every one of which is a war
crime.

· In a few brief references to attacks, this report blandly states
that Palestinian groups "fired indiscriminate rockets and mortars into
southern Israel, killing two people and endangering the lives of others."
(pg. 267) The phrasing "lives of others" is a gross understatement for
characterizing an ongoing campaign of rocket attacks targeting Israeli
population centers.

· Amnesty continues to level the false claim that Israel had "failed
to conduct independent investigations into alleged war crimes by Israeli
forces during Operation 'Cast Lead'." Israel has conducted hundreds of
investigations into the events relating to the 2008-09 war. Judge Mary
McGowan Davis, empanelled by the Human Rights Council to lead the follow-up
committee to the Goldstone Report, found that "Israel has dedicated
significant resources to investigate over 400 allegations of operational
misconduct in Gaza." Judge Goldstone, himself, has noted "our main
recommendation was for each party to investigate, transparently and in good
faith, the incidents referred to in our report. McGowan Davis has found that
Israel has done this to a significant degree."

· Amnesty's report again repeats unsupported Palestinian casualty
claims, which, as in the case of the 2009 Goldstone Report on the Gaza war,
are often demonstrably false. For example, in the summary of the response to
attempts to storm Israel's borders in May 2011, the report claims that "Up
to 35 people were reportedly killed when Israeli soldiers fired at thousands
of Palestinian refugees and others who protested on 15 May and 5 June at the
Lebanese border with Israel and the Syrian border with the Israeli-occupied
Golan." (pg187). The claim of 35 killed is not supported by any credible
sources.

· Amnesty continues to repeat the claims of unreliable Israeli and
Palestinian NGOs, without any independent review. For example the report
cites the findings of Yesh Din, despite the fact that the methodology it
employs has been discredited.

· The false allegations and double standards in the Amnesty report
reflect the employment of Deborah Hyams, whose history of anti-Israel
activism is well documented, as a researcher for "Israel, Occupied
Palestinian Territories and Palestinian Authority". In 2008, Hyams was
signatory to a letterclaiming Israel is "a state founded on terrorism,
massacres and the dispossession of another people from their land." In 2002
Hyams "said that while she does not condone suicide bombings, she personally
believes they 'are in response to the occupation.'" Hyams has worked for a
number of radical advocacy NGOs, including the Alternative Information
Center (AIC), Jews for Justice in Palestine and Israel (JPPI), Rachel Corrie
Foundation, and Ma'an Network.

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